|
|
|
WITHIN THE FAMILY
Musings on Manhattanville, 1968 and Hoops
An alumnus asked me the other day, “Is Manhattanville really going to happen?” I was momentarily taken aback, because working on (or at least near) campus, I’ve been surrounded by all the talk about Manhattanville, the design drawings, the site tours and the frequent updates on the planning and approval process.
After pausing for a moment to make sure I wasn’t overlooking something, I responded, “Yes, it’s almost certainly going to happen.” And following recent approvals by the City Planning Commission and the New York City Council of the necessary rezoning of that land from light manufacturing to mixed-use, I’m confident that it’s time to take “almost” out of my response.
The approvals completed the four-step Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (fondly known as ULURP, an acronym for the ages), after public hearings by Community Board 9 and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer. In the New York Times story announcing the City Council vote, President Lee C. Bollinger was quoted as saying, “This is a great moment for the University, for the city and we hope for the communities around us. Expansion is a critical requirement for us to remain one of the great universities of the world.”
It’s important to keep in mind, however, that just as Rome was not built in a day, neither will Manhattanville.
The project as proposed covers 17 acres and provides 6.8 million square feet of space above- and below-grade for teaching, academic research and civic and commercial activity, as well as below-grade parking and facilities support. It is not scheduled for completion until 2030 — and NYC construction projects are known to occasionally run behind schedule.
As campuses go, Manhattanville will not look like Morningside Heights. It will be an open campus, with none of the familiar iron gates. There will be a public square near the middle of the site. Sidewalks will be widened on the perimeter and on the cross streets to improve access to the square as well as the Hudson River waterfront park under construction. Buildings along the main thoroughfares — Broadway, Twelfth Avenue and West 125th Street — will include stores, restaurants and other community services.
The first phase of construction, which could begin later this year, includes new homes for the Business School, the School of the Arts and the new, Columbia-assisted public secondary school for math, science and engineering. These will be located in the southern part of Manhattanville.
For more information on Manhattanville, see the story on page 6 and log onto http://neighbors.columbia.edu/pages/manplanning.
On December 9, I watched 1968 with Tom Brokaw on The History Channel, which got a jump on what promises to be a plethora of programming marking the 40th anniversary of one of the more eventful years in recent history. Among those interviewed on the two-hour program was Mark Rudd ’69, one of the leaders of the Columbia student uprising, who chatted with Brokaw from a perch outside Alfred Lerner Hall.
I came away from the program with mixed feelings. I was fascinated by the old film footage and still pictures that were used throughout, and it was interesting to hear Rafer Johnson and Andrew Young discuss the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., respectively. But when it was over, I was left dissatisfied; I’d taken a nice stroll down memory lane, but I hadn’t really learned anything new. I’d been hoping for some insights into why so much boiled to the surface in this one particular year, but maybe 1968 was just too messy for a two-hour TV show to put a bow on it.
To mark the 40th anniversary of Spring ’68 at Columbia, CCT is inviting all who were on campus at the time — students, faculty, administrators, staff, outside agitators, police, whoever — to share your thoughts in our May/June issue. How did these events shape your life? Was there one image or event that summed it all up for you? Did Spring ’68 change the way you looked at the world in the ensuing decades, and if so, how?
Please limit your responses to 250 words or fewer. Send them to me at as801@columbia.edu or mail them to the address on our masthead. Since we expect more responses than we can publish in the magazine, we’re planning to put some on our Web site.
Will this be the year for Columbia men’s basketball, since coach Joe Jones has six seniors back from last year’s 16–12 (7–7 Ivy) team? Those 16 victories were Columbia’s most since 1992–93, raising hopes that the 2007–08 Lions might win their first Ivy League title since 1967–68 (ah, the symmetry).
The Lions stumbled out of the gate, going 4–6 before breaking for finals. Those non-conference games were marked by inconsistency, with players shooting well one night and poorly the next. Different players would play well in different games, but rarely would enough play well at the same time for the team to look like a contender for the Ivy championship.
Columbia has five more non-conference games before beginning Ivy play on January 16 at Cornell. Five of Columbia’s first eight league games are on the road, and those games — plus the annual Princeton-Penn Weekend in Levien Gym on February 8–9 — will go a long way toward determining whether Columbia will contend for the Ivy crown.
|
|
|
Contact CCT
Advertise with CCT
University 
College 
Alumni Home
